Cam City WI Committee Report 
May 2024 - April 2025

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Our Year - by Sheena D and the Committee

May 2024: Gong Bath Experience (and a bit of Cam City WI AM Business)

In May we welcomed Emma from Sound Our Souls, who gave members a taster evening of a sound bath - incorporating gongs and instruments meant to heal with sound vibrations and induce deep relaxation.  Our members were as relaxed as possible in a new 'cosier' area of our venue and it was such a popular meeting that some members took an opportunity to hang back and catch up (which was just as relaxing!) Since the meeting a number of members have started attending regular sound baths!  We took a little time during the May meeting to conduct AM business, where the Financial Report 2023 was accepted, a committee for 2024/25 reformed and Mel R was elected (uncontested) as President for the sixth year.

June 2024: Namibia's Elephants - a Desert Conflict with Mandy Bright (and the National WI AGM, Royal Albert Hall)

Our speaker in June, Mandy Bright, gave us a fascinating insight into some of the issues that arise when animals and humans compete for scarce resources - in this case, elephants competing with people in Namibian desert communities for water. We learned how elephants can be safely moved away from villages, and Mandy's passion and enthusiasm for a career in conservation shone through. It's fair to say that more than a few of her audience left with thoughts of their own volunteering plans!  A number of members had to forgo attending, as the National WI AGM took place on the same day - Mel R was the delegate sent by Cam City WI to vote and represent a cohort of Cambridgeshire WIs, with observer tickets taken up by Bronwyn R, Mary H and Sheena D.  They attended the meeting at the Royal Albert Hall and listened to a number of guest speakers including Melanie Brown who focused on the importance of women recognising coercive control. 

July 2024: Collage Club

Some members had preconceived ideas about what the evening’s title meant but our talented lead member, Karina showed us a very fluid, open style of collage and members had an opportunity to explore memories, responses and creativity.  Mel brought in vintage style postcards and helped members to thread paint onto them ready to incorporate with images from magazines, posters and flyers - tearing, cutting, and sticking to combine imagery of all types.  Imagination juices were flowing freely and our members made beautiful, forceful, humorous and in some cases, dare we say, 'demonic' collages that evoked much laughter and social chatter.  A super opportunity to sit and work on something that channelled our 'inner artist'.

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No meeting in August

September 2024:  Darwin College Gardens - Talk & Tour

A large contingent of members met Derrienne Bell, the female Head Gardener at Darwin College for a private guided tour.  Darwin is a 'postgraduates only' college, so for many of the students it really is their home all year, for years and what a privilege! It was a delight to meet Derri and hear her informative and relaxed speaking style from within the gardens, which she showed us were a wonderfully, inclusive space for all the students and academics at the college (judging from the many 'leafy' gifts that returning professors donated from their travels and studies over the years).  Derri explained how the bones of the garden design developed as the college expanded into neighbouring properties.  She also explained, as their relatively new Head Gardener, how she is moving towards a more sustainable style of managing, with naturalised species planted in a more 'flowing' way that works well with our changing environment.  As she said, 'plant the right plant in the right space that suits the needs of the plant'.  She also intrigued us when explaining the myriad of ways that she is empowering the students to take ownership of what grows where in the garden, as well as encouraging them to participate in its yearly cycle, as there are clear links between positive mental health outcomes and being outside and gardening.  We also benefitted from beautiful weather that evening.

October 2024:  Apothecary - the Comeback

Our own members, Sarah & Nikki (AKA Biddy & Crone) were welcomed back for a second 'dose' Apothecary session. We learnt even more about the amazing properties of flowers and herbs and the healing potential of natural ingredients.  We had fun with tinctures and tonics, infusions and shots.  They shared with enthusiasm and humour, what they had learnt about and developed, regaling us with both success stories and accounts of when things had not quite gone to plan, which bolstered all of us to try out the 'hands on' recipes they had prepared for us.  Some of us found a new determination to ditch shop bought chemical products and turn to some of the natural methods embraced by Sarah and Nikki.  It was a chatty and engaging meeting, and members enjoyed trying their concoctions and felt encouraged to share extra tips they had found useful to implement.  This month Cam City WI turned 12! 

November 2024: Fabric Wreath Making

This session was perfectly timed for members to get into a creative spirit that is so often called for in preparation for winter festivities.  Karina once again led and supported the group with lots of encouragement, with members selecting their fabrics from stash or from the donations brought in by Mel and Karina.  We loved the speed at which we could see results too.  Karina demonstrated the simple techniques involved and showed how mixing colours and weights of fabric and the size of hoop all affected the finished article.  Many members continued to work on their hoops over the next few hours and days and shared pictures of their finished creations in our WI What's App community chats which, in turn, really inspired others to be even more experimental and brave in their next colour and fabric combinations.  We belatedly celebrated our 12th Birthday with delicious cakes baked by our baking queen Ruth B.

December 2024: Life's a Drag and the Evil Santa game

December's meeting was a double whammy.  We thoroughly enjoyed the talk given by local Drag Queen icon 'Felicity Flappes' aka Mark Briggs who joined us in dazzling full drag for the evening.  Whilst 'Felicity' talked us through some amazing slides giving us highlights of Mark's timeline into drag including societal changes and the developments in the industry, he did a fantastic job of putting Sarah into 'drag' - applying make-up and his wig! The transformation was a lot of fun! Nothing was 'off the table' in the Q&A - all members questions were answered with passion and honesty - from 'Shakespeare' to 'strategic tape tales', 'wig care' and 'top make up tips'.  As has become a tradition we ended the evening with the Evil Santa Game! A quick fire present 'snatch and grab' - much laughter and hilarity ensued!

January 2025: The Women's Art Collection, Murray Edwards College

We met in person at the all-female Murray Edwards College for a private tour with the college Art Curator, Sarah Greaves. Murray Edwards has the largest all female Art collection in Europe and Sarah focussed our viewing on some key pieces that were not accessible on the usual 'open to the public self-guided tour'. It was especially fascinating to see items of 'behind closed door' art works and to hear about when, why and how the decisions were made for new pieces to be added to the collection.  It was particularly interesting to hear how the artists linked to the college and how its unique architecture plays an important role in the way the art works are displayed. During the tour of the art in the library, our member Ruth B, a keen knitter, offered to make an 'Emotional Support Chicken' in the college colours - for the students, to help alleviate exam stress. This has now been beautifully knitted, gratefully received and housed in the Library a Murray Edwards College.

February 2025:  The Bake-Along with Ruth B: Damp Ginger Cake Edition

Our baking queen, Ruth B, ran her FIFTH and very scrumptious online bake-along in February! Ruth picked another firm favourite recipe to share with us - Damp Gingerbread - and we all got a chance to make this wonderful sticky, ginger cake.  Members were sent the ingredients and equipment list in advance and were encouraged to cook at home whilst Ruth led us through the steps on the screen from her own kitchen.  Whether we made it alone in on our own kitchen or joined together in friendship groups to make and bake it, we all ended up with a beautifully moist cake, it was a delicious success.  We'd like to thank Ruth for a wonderful run of Bake-alongs over five years.

March 2025: The Spring Fling

Having run several dance sessions for us in past, our Bronwyn was keen to shake things up a little for our 'Spring Fling'.  Bronwyn along with Clare from Market Harborough WI ran a super, participatory evening and it didn’t matter if you had not done any dancing before, as all the moves were expertly demonstrated with such humour, boosting confidence and fun levels.  We focused on modern jive combos and swinging to joyous music.  Clare had an innovative teaching style which allowed members to move quickly and often to various different partners whilst learning the dance moves which made it both inclusive and very social. It was a great way for members to meet and talk to others they may not know so well yet - with any shyness quickly swept away.  Everyone enjoyed it immensely!

April 2025: Skills to Save a Life

We were fortunate to have in person training with Bex, on both the latest adult CPR methods and paediatric CPR, plus demonstrations on what to do when someone of any age is choking.  Bex is a highly experienced, medical trainer with really engaging style of delivery. The meeting was very well attended and we benefited from it being both a theoretical and a practical session. We had the use of multiple resuscitation dummies and defibrillators, alongside the skills of a number of our own professional medical WI members who were our section leaders for the evening. We were able to split into smaller groups to go through the steps as we got hands on - growing in knowledge and confidence as the evening progressed.  Everyone was impressed with the standard of training we got to experience.  Bex was also brilliant at answering everyone's wide variety of questions and members shared insightful personal experiences that related to events where you might need to call on these skills.

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Outgoing President's Address 2025 by Melanie Reed

First of all, let me say - I’m so ridiculously proud of our WI – Cam City WI will always be important to me because I’ve found the most magnificent and meaningful friendships that really quickly surpassed just a monthly opportunity to get together and learn with likeminded women.

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I’ve reached a point, after 6 years as President and just over 10 years on Committee where I feel able to step back - back to a point in time when I was a member just like you are – I don’t mind telling you I am looking forward to the privilege of having a programme developed and delivered for me by a new committee that will take us forward beautifully.

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I’ve been looking back on my time, over the long list of all our meetings, and felt a bit of surprise and pride that *I think* I have only missed TWO meetings in my entire 11 and a bit years of membership with Cam City WI – one to pesky Shingles and the other to attending the NFWI AGM (so technically ONE meeting really!). 

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Countless times I’ve used the phrase ‘this meeting is now in my top three’! Because time and time again your committee has worked so hard to bring you brilliant meetings as well as opportunities to have fun and learn and experience new things!

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I want to nod to all the committee members past and present, many of you have done spells of time on committee and you know just what can be achieved when you get a great organising group of volunteers together.  I would encourage many more of you, that have not yet stood for committee, to do so – fresh eyes are fabulous for the group; new ideas are always welcome and balance is something we need to strive for.  This will be my last shout out to encourage you because as I have said before, ‘The WI is what you make it’.

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As I step down fully off committee, I want to express massive gratitude to the ladies that have joined me with their voices and hard work. 

To Bronwyn, our outgoing Treasurer who will remain on committee to handover and support a new Treasurer into the role.  Bron has been thoroughly instrumental to the running of our WI for some years now and I have been so appreciative of her willingness to help the rest of committee understand our income and outgoings and position us with a clear reasoning of why forward planning of our programme is important.  She has handled the nature of the work wonderfully whilst managing a full-time job and life – if she can do it, anyone can!  I’ve so enjoyed working with Bron but mostly I am so happy to call her one of my closest friends.   Thank you Bron.

To Stephanie, our Secretary – Steph, in my opinion, is the rock of our WI – she really has kept our committee meetings on track and recorded our discussions and decision making beautifully.  It’s a tough job keeping us on point sometimes, but Steph is cool headed and wonderful.  I’ve appreciated her support and communication and I look forward to a long friendship and to supporting her with any handover she needs from me.  Thank you, Steph.

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To Barbara, who’s currently having a lot of fun in Indonesia right now!  I just find her enthusiasm and drive fabulous – Barbara has been responsible for planning many a meeting - including the recent Women in Wine Talk and Tasting AND four wonderful candle workshops.  She’s a busy lady but has made time to work with me, to learn some of the processes that I have been responsible for – for that, I am endlessly impressed and definitely grateful.  I look forward to more time with Barbara for even more pursuits like sewing together, she really is ace. Thank you, Barbara.

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To Karina, my favourite ball of energy and ideas and perspectives – always the first to say yes to doing tasks, so much so we have to pull her back a little bit and make her think of herself first! Honestly, I don’t think I know anyone more likely to think of others before herself.  I hope she has fun with the new committee and keeps up the creative side of Cam City WI.  She has also been so awesome to share her teaching skills to run meetings for us! I hope we will have more of those in the future.  Thank you, Karina.

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To Sheena, she shows such a can-do attitude when it comes to preparing for our meetings.  This venue is not plain sailing but nearly every session she spins about the place setting up and picking up jobs in the background – we could all do with being a bit more like ‘this bit’ of Sheena.  She is also extremely generous with her hosting of committee meetings and cheerleads committee members on, with planning progress.  She’s been responsible for organising and leading wonderful recent meetings off site, bringing us opportunities to step into different places like Darwin College Gardens and the all-female art space at Murray Edwards college.  Keep up the energy Sheena.  Thank you.

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To Sandra, a level head and quiet commentator on proceedings, she’s shown willingness to get hands on to help out and is taking charge of some of the processes, like keeping member details up to date and celebrating them when birthdays draw near.  More good things from Sandra to come, I’m sure.  Thank you, Sandra.

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To Kirsty, who joined us this past year and added a calm balance to the group – being thoughtful, listening and assessing.  I think we’ve all noted she is showing a really positive willingness to take on more tasks so I hope we will all encourage and be grateful for what Kirsty will be achieving for us in the year to come.  Thank you, Kirsty, and have fun with it!

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To Hayley, who joined us mid-year with an interest in seeing how things were done and to contribute with programme planning and decision making.  Hayley will remain a committee member at large as she’s currently adding to her own household number and hopefully, she will be back with us with ‘babe in arms’ soon.  Sending her lots of love and thanks for all her contributions this year. Thank you, Hayley.

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And to Mary, a very busy lady she takes some time out to join us for committee meetings to lend her voice and opinion which is what we need for a balanced group.  She has been Bronwyn’s shadow treasurer handling duties when Bron has called her on - and is great example of the need for committee members to understand the tasks taken on by others and provide back up.  Thank you, Mary.

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I’ve given all these ladies a practical gift from me personally, as I know in advance they will be continuing on committee (or at least I hope they will stand up again later on this evening!) they will be able to make lovely to do lists in their new personalised notebooks! I promise that if we get even more new committee members that I will also buy you your own bespoke notebook too! Thank you again ladies!

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*Just to also note that I have made a bespoke notepad for myself too – with the words ‘Get anything BUT Cam City WI Shiz Done!’ inscribed into it! – with the time I will get back after stepping down I will be making many a list of things that I can no longer procrastinate doing hehehe.

Plus, we now say thank you to Kate A and Lucie A who are ‘officially’ now off duty from being committee members at large.  Thank you for all the contributions you made to the group!

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To our Club leads – Sarah N (also in Indonesia right now!), to Bron, Lisa and Karina – thank you for keeping these going and we look forward to more club meets and engagement coming up.

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Every year we have a massive thank you to give to Tracy and to Go Glass for being ever generous in opportunities to raise funds – last Winter’s Glass Flowers workshop was one in a long list of opportunities that Tracy has been so kind enough to deliver for us.  We remain forever grateful.  Thank you, Tracy.

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And a special thanks to a very beloved member of our group who has delivered FIVE of our meetings in the past five years – Our Baking Queen, Ruth B – we’d just like to give you special recognition for giving so much of your time and knowledge to your fellow WI members in the FIVE Online Bakealongs you have delivered.  Thank you, Ruth.

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So, I’ll conclude the President’s Address here with one last ‘Thank you’ – to the members present, past and future.  Some of you I’ve known a long time, some have now moved on but remain most excellent friends, and some of you I’ve yet to fully get to know – you’re all brilliant, you’re here for a reason and I hope you get what you need from your WI, now and in the future.  Get involved, be as grateful as I am for it because we’re all very privileged to have it.

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Thanks so much and lots of love.

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Your confirmed Committee for 2024/2025

Your known volunteer Committee members are currently :

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Amanda N - joined during the AM

Barbara G

Bronwyn R - outgoing Treasurer

Hayley M

Karina Q

Kirsty C

Mary H

Sandra H

Sheena D 

Stephanie PO - current Secretary​

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At the first Committee meeting of the year in May 2025, the roles of Treasurer and Secretary will be assigned and confirmed.

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Your President:

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Sheena D

Charity of the Year 2025/2026

This year we will continue our support of CWRC.  Members voted ahead of the 2023 AM in the majority (71%) to support Cambridge Women's Resource Centre with specifically agreed fundraising efforts that may be split between CWRC and Cam City WI. 

AND THIS IS THE BUSINESS OF OUR ANNUAL MEETING! 
Thank you for reading through this record of it!